Appeal No. 2002-1041
Application 08/866,402
(filed August 3, 1995)
Claims 20-34 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as
being unpatentable over Volk and Greanias.
We refer to the final rejection (Paper No. 15) (pages
referred to as "FR__") and the examiner's answer (Paper No. 18)
(pages referred to as "EA__") for a statement of the examiner's
rejection, and to the appeal brief (Paper No. 17) (pages referred
to as "Br__") for a statement of appellants' arguments
thereagainst.
OPINION
Obviousness factual findings
Content of the prior art
Volk discloses a viewer interface for use in an interactive
television environment, but which can be used with computer
software (col. 12, line 60 to col. 13, line 6). Control items on
the screen, such as control buttons or icons for "open" and
"close" functions, are selected by a user who typically navigates
a cursor with a keyboard or mouse, and selects the control item
by a keyboard stroke or a mouse click (col. 4, lines 9-16). A
selected control item responsive to input is said to have the
"focus" (col. 4, lines 26-27) and is indicated by a focus item.
"[T]he display of a control item that has the focus is typically
altered, for example by highlighting the display of the item or
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